Spotlight – Where Nothing & Everything Happens….

Spotlight

I didn’t know much about Spotlight, aside from the Oscar buzz but when I was offered a ticket to to an event hosted by Hoyts cinema, I thought, why not, a free night at the movies in Lux class!

Let’s be clear, there are no vicious bear fight scenes, there are no murders, and there are no heart stopping car chases or CGI special effects. This is a slow burn movie with integrity and clarity which builds and sucks you in. To me, it seemed like an indie movie, but with a stellar Hollywood cast; Rachel McAdams, John Slattery, Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber, Stanley Tucci and Billy Crudup who is a welcome return to the screen.

[wpe_video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg5zSVxx9JM[/wpe_video]

The film follows a small team at Spotlight, who slowly find the pieces to expose cover ups of incidents with children and a Paedophile Priest called John Geoghan in Boston. The movie touches so delicately and with dignity on the impact of these crimes on the victims whilst focussing on the journalists and their own struggles and realisations as the story unfolds to become bigger than they ever expected.

Liev Schreiber plays a wonderfully understated, yet pivotal role and Mark Ruffalo is excellent as reporter Michael Rezendes, although I was distracted ever so slightly by Ruffalo’s pinchy side mouth (method acting perhaps?).

Mark Ruffalo Spotlight

I never would have gone to see this movie had the ticket not been offered to me, and I would have sorely missed out on some great cinema.  This film sits in a class of it’s own and will be hard to beat for movie of the year.

Spotlight is an absorbing movie that will have you thinking about it days after viewing. Settle in to a Hoyts Lux seat and lose yourself for 2 hours in an impressive film.

5 stars from me!